This invention relates generally to distribution of content by online systems, and in particular to distribution of content embedded within videos hosted by an online system.
Online systems distribute content to users, for example, video or audio content. Content distributed by an online system often includes embedded content. For example, a video hosted by the online system may include a short embedded video that is unrelated to the content of the video. An online system may analyze distribution of embedded content in videos provided other video hosting systems, for example, to determine how frequently the embedded content is distributed to users. However, video hosting systems typically do not provide application programming interfaces or other mechanisms to retrieve this information. Online systems may obtain this information by using services of experts that know about various video hosting systems through their personal knowledge or contacts. However, services of such experts are typically expensive. Furthermore, the knowledge and contacts of these experts may become outdated with changes in the industry. Therefore, conventional techniques for obtaining information describing distribution of embedded content by a video hosting system are often inadequate.